The Last Quarrel (The Complete Edition) (46 page)

Still, this was something they could work on together and Fallon began to relax and enjoy the sight of Kerrin shaking paws with Caley after every shot, as well as the other villagers gradually stopping their own practice to instead cheer his boy on.

But then something, a feeling on the back of his neck, made him turn his head, to see King Aidan approaching, accompanied by Kelty and a dozen guards.

Fallon felt his stomach swoop as he remembered both the King’s words and Cavan’s warning. He had to be careful what he said to the King but, all the same, if he could get the man to see him as a favorite, then Bridgit and the others could be sailing home before the next moon.

“Captain Fallon! Good to see you out and about – and passing on your extraordinary skill to your men!” Aidan greeted warmly.

Fallon was quick to remember what he had been told and dropped to one knee, waving the others down as well. They responded quickly although, he saw to his horror, Kerrin was admiring his latest shot on target rather than watching what was going on.

Finally, after what seemed like an age but was probably only a handful of heartbeats, Kerrin turned, a broad smile on his face, which was swiftly replaced by confusion as he saw everyone down on one knee. Then he saw the King and Fallon’s urgent hand motions and finally dropped to one knee, making Caley sit as well.

“And who is this? A little young for a guardsman, is he not?” Aidan asked genially.

Fallon almost stood, thinking to put himself between the King and Kerrin, but the King had not signaled they could rise and any chance of getting into Aidan’s good graces would disappear if he was not careful. “Sire, this is my son, Kerrin,” he said.

The King walked closer and tousled Kerrin’s hair. “I bet you miss your mother, eh lad?” he asked.

Fallon saw Caley tense and prayed the dog would not do anything that would risk all their lives. Luckily the King did not appear to be wearing anything from Kottermani. He was dressed instead in simple tunic and trews, although both were of a beautiful style and cut.

“I do, sire,” Kerrin said in a whisper.

“But it is good your father has you,” Aidan said softly, so only Kerrin and Fallon heard it. Then he turned away from Kerrin and all relaxed as the King waved at them to stand.

“Walk with me for a moment, Captain Fallon,” he said, a slight smile still on his face as his gaze lingered on Kerrin.

Fallon followed the King a few paces away from the others, noticing that Kelty and his guards made no move to come closer.

“A fine lad. Reminds me of my boys,” Aidan said, placing a hand across Fallon’s shoulders. He lowered his voice. “It gives me great comfort to know you are there to watch over my son.”

“I do my best, your majesty,” Fallon said awkwardly.

“I know. But you want your family returned, all your families returned?”

“Of course, I would do anything for that!”

Aidan nodded wisely and lowered his voice further. “I may have a use for you, young Fallon. A special task. Complete it and I will guarantee your family is returned to you.”

“Whatever it is, your majesty, I will do it. You can count on me,” Fallon said instantly.

Aidan patted him on the shoulder. “Good, good. I think I can. Well then, I shall leave you to your training and I will talk to you later.”

Waving at the rest of the villagers, he gathered Kelty and his men and strolled off.

“What was that about, Dad?” Kerrin asked.

“I’m not really sure,” Fallon admitted. “But it might just be the way to get your mam back.”

Bridgit felt her legs wobble as she stepped back onto dry land again. It took her a few paces before the buildings stopped feeling as though they were moving up and down.

“Keep moving! Follow!” the Kottermani guards, those that spoke Gaelish anyway, yelled at them. The others just shouted and threatened.

Beyond them, a mob of Kottermanis had clustered to stare and point and jeer. They were all men – not one woman among them. And Bridgit did not like the way they were looking at some of the younger villagers. She glanced around to see she was not the only one. Several of the women were shrinking away from the pointing, gesticulating crowd. They could not understand the words but they could see the men’s meaning clearly enough.

If that were not bad enough, the port of Adana was nothing like Gaelland. Many of these women had never left their village before. A handful had been to Lunster but that was nothing compared to the Kottermani port. For a start the light was different, much brighter and harsher. The buildings were tall and made of stone and shaped strangely – bulbous and curved rather than blocky and straight. Many were covered in bright tiles, their colors shining in the sun. And the smells! Spices were overlaid with strange musks, while even the animals looked strange. They recognized sheep and horses but there was also a herd of strange creatures with long necks and humped backs, far taller than a man, which made strange noises and frightened the children as they hissed and grumbled. The younger ones were crying and women stopped to comfort them. Guards shouted at them, threatened them with strange words and familiar sticks and whips, which only made things worse.

Everything was strange, everything was fearful and the guards were not going to give them any time to get used to it.

But Bridgit saw she had to do something, because moving around the port were lines of slaves, carrying heavy loads and being whipped if they slowed down. The message was clear. To falter was to invite pain, or worse.

“Keep moving! Stay together! Keep the children in the center!” Bridgit shouted back. “Walk tall and show them nothing!”

Some began to obey and she hurried up the line, encouraging and cajoling the others.

Just ahead of her, a toddler was inconsolable, unable to go past the lowered head of one of the strange creatures, which had a strange froth around its lips as it chewed something.

“It will eat me!” the child cried as her mother tried to soothe her, in vain.

One of the Kottermani guards stood over the two of them, shouting furiously in his language, which was only making things worse. When he saw his words were having no effect, he drew back his arm, with the stick he held. Before he could do more than threaten, Bridgit was there.

“Leave her alone,” she said calmly but loudly, her hands behind her back.

The guard pointed his free hand at her but she did not flinch.

“Back away or I swear to Aroaril that Prince Kemal will have you hanging by your balls from one of those pretty roofs over there,” she told him fiercely.

She knew he would not understand her words but he had picked up “Kemal” as well as her tone. He still looked furious but his arm – and the stick – lowered.

Still glaring at him, she helped the woman to pick up her child.

“They won’t harm you. Not while I’m here. Now walk. Walk!” she urged.

The woman hurried away and Bridgit stared down the guard, who merely signaled that she should continue. Or, at least, that was what she took his hand gesture to mean.

“Stick close! We will be safe; we will survive!” she called.

The line steadied and they began to move with purpose once more. Bridgit kept going, getting them past the jeering crowd and the strange smells and animals. When she reached the last of her charges again she looked behind them, and could see activity back on the ship.

Men appeared on the side, men in Gaelish dress, and for a moment her heart leaped – and then she saw them being pushed into line by more guards. There were more men there than had been left in Baltimore and she guessed they must have been taken from fishing boats or even from Killarney. She wondered what had been happening to them – but only for a moment. Her duty was to keep the women and children safe.

She encouraged and cajoled the line as they walked through part of the city. While the smells were strange, they were not as foul as the ones she would have expected from Lunster or Berry. She wished the houses leaned out, the way they did in Lunster, for the bright sun was harsh on their eyes and skin. Instead they were straight and tall, with small windows facing the sun and larger windows on the shadier sides. Wherever she looked, Kottermani faces peered down at her and fingers pointed. But soon she forgot about looking around the city and thought only about walking. None of them had exercised in the time they had been on the ship and many were close to exhaustion once they reached the city outskirts. Bridgit was carrying a pair of children by then and struggling to keep her mind on anything more than simply putting one foot in front of the other. But then she saw they were being directed towards a huge stone structure. At first she thought it some sort of giant storehouse, although it was nothing like the ones they used at home. It was low and flat-roofed and, while the gates were wide and open, the windows were tiny and high up in the wall.

“In! In!” their guards shouted, pointing with the sticks and the whips, and she realized it was a store after all, but for human cargo, not grain or animals.

She handed the children back to their mother and hurried forwards so she was near Nola and Riona, thinking that they would probably be distributed into a series of cells and wanting to be with her friends if that happened. But then she saw her work was not done yet. The women up the front were reluctant to step inside the gloom and the guards were growing furious.

“Don’t be afraid. This is not the end for us!” she bellowed, her voice carrying over the cries of the children, the worried calls of the women and the shouts of the guards.

She pushed forwards to the front, peering into the gloom. She feared it would smell like unwashed bodies and human waste or, worse, like death. But instead there was still the faint tang of spices and she wondered if it had always been used for keeping humans.

“It is safe! Come on!” she encouraged, leading the way inside.

It took her eyes a few moments to adjust, going from the bright sunlight outside to the gloom inside. Still, at least it was blessedly cool compared to the hot sun. She looked around, seeing it was indeed a series of cells, but not small ones. It was instead split into four different parts, and three of them already had people inside. Fellow Gaelish, she saw at once. Each cell or, rather, each barred section, was large: four or five times the size of the meeting hall back in Baltimore. In one, a group of men lay slumped on the floor. Even the arrival of so many women and children only persuaded a handful of them to come up to the bars at the front to see what was going on.

In the second section was a smaller group of women and in the third section was a handful of children.

Both these sections rushed to the bars to see what was going on.

“In here!” The guards swung open huge double iron doors onto the empty section and Bridgit pushed back to encourage her people.

“We are all staying together! Nothing to worry about!” she told them, time and again. “It’s quite safe!”

They believed her and followed the line through to the cell. Bridgit stayed back, to make sure all went into the same place and none were going to be singled out. Only when she was sure did she follow them into the cell, where the doors were swung shut and slammed into place.

She looked around and wondered if she had done the right thing. She had been so sure that Fallon would come for them. But now, looking at the cells where they were held, and considering the number of Kottermanis they had walked past to get there, she worried that even if he did come, how could he get them out?
I think I need to start thinking about how to get us out of here
, she mused. But, looking up at the small, high windows and the thick iron bars, she had no idea whether a way even existed. Instinctively she felt there would be a chance, a moon or two down the track, to escape by herself. Her captors would be lulled by then and there were many boats in the harbor that could be taken. But getting away by herself was not enough. She had to get them all home. They all depended on her and she could not let them down.

A disturbance over by the main gates broke her concentration and she turned to see the two score of Baltimore men and older boys being whipped into the store.

“You can’t do this to us!” one of the few younger men shouted. Bridgit peered through the gloom and recognized him as Seamus, one of the two brothers who had been left to watch the harbor and failed to give any warning. Probably they had been drunk, she reflected bitterly, remembering all the times Fallon had had to deal with them.

They were hurled into the cell with the other men and the gate was also locked.

One Kottermani guard, who Bridgit recognized as Erdogan, stalked between the cells.

“You are to rest here and regain your strength. At the next full moon you will be sold as slaves. Obey and you will live. Try to fight, or try to escape, and pain will be your reward,” he told them.

“But –” Seamus began only to shut his mouth as Erdogan slammed his whip against the bars next to the man.

“No questions. Or we will use you as example to others!”

Bridgit was not surprised to see Seamus shrink back away from the bars.

Seemingly satisfied, Erdogan gave them all a final glare, then turned and walked away, signaling the gates be shut behind him. But a dozen guards remained behind, sitting down beside the barred entrance to the building. All had swords and whips.

“What now?” Riona asked.

“We talk to the others who were here before us and see what they know,” Bridgit said briskly.

“What about us?” Nola asked.

Bridgit pointed to a large barrel of water that had several cups floating on the top. “Get everyone over for a drink. After that walk, and the worry, they will all need water. It’s cool in here but it was hotter than the pits of Zorva out there.”

She left them to organize that and went over to the women’s cell and called them over, discovering they had been there for only two days, although some had been languishing in the holds of Kottermani ships for up to a moon before they even sailed for the Empire.

“Why do you still have your children with you? We can see them but not touch them, which is killing us. They reach through the bars and cry for us,” one of the mothers asked.

“That was a deal I made with our captor, Prince Kemal. I will do the same for you. By night’s end I will have you reunited with your children,” Bridgit promised, although she knew full well she could not guarantee such a thing.

“Who are you? Are you one of the nobles to do that?” the mother asked.

Bridgit laughed. “Me? Noble? I know it’s dark in here but you must be struggling to see clearly if you think that. I’m as common as muck. But, talking of nobles, what about the Duke of Lunster? Is he over there?” she asked. “What about his guards? Are they there?”

The women all shook their heads at that.

“We’ve not seen nor heard of him. But then again, he could be held somewhere else. The bastard nobles always get the best of everything,” one said bitterly.

Bridgit nodded agreement, although she was not so sure. There would have been two score men on board the Duke’s ship. Why weren’t any of them there, if they had been seized to be slaves just like everyone else? She thought about that for a moment and nearly gasped in surprise. She vividly remembered Fallon showing her the crossbow bolt he had found on board the Duke’s ship. It had been pointed, although like the ones used in Baltimore, smaller than the quarrels he used. But on the night they had sacked the village they had been using blunted bolts, which could stun but not kill. Things had obviously been different on board the Duke’s ship. But why? Surely if all this was about money and slaves, why kill two score prime candidates? And where had all the blood gone? She had no answer.

“Something’s going on,” Riona said softly, pointing over to where the men were clustered together in their cell.

Bridgit eased up to the bars. “Psst!” she hissed at them until one turned around.

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

“Never you mind. We’re coming up with a plan to get us out of here,” Seamus told her scornfully, only to be clipped over the head by his brother Sean.

“It’s men’s business, not for women,” Sean told her loftily. “But don’t you worry. We’ll get you out and bring you with us.”

“Don’t be fools!” Bridgit snarled but they turned away and ignored her.

“What is it?” Nola asked.

“Cursed fools! Do they really think to be able to get us out of here, past guards and through the city to the port and then grab a ship? With so many children and so few men? They are going to get us killed,” Bridgit fumed.

“What can we do?” Riona asked.

“Not sure yet. They won’t listen to me. But we have to save ourselves from them. We might even have to save them from their own stupidity,” she said grimly.